Good Friday, bad call? Religion debate over keeping school in session

Winchester found itself on the forefront of a thorny religious and political debate last week, when it officially held classes on Good Friday.

Eric Tsetsi

Winchester found itself on the forefront of a thorny religious and political debate last week, when it officially held classes on Good Friday.

The Christian holiday marking the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ had been on the school department’s list of observed holidays for decades. But in May 2007, the School Committee voted 3-2 to change the policy and keep school open.

Last Friday was the first test of the committee’s decision and administrators were in the schools taking note of the resulting number of teacher and student absences.

According to Superintendent Bill McAlduff, about 70 percent of the high school’s student population and 47 percent of the staff were absent. In the Middle School, about 51 percent of students and 33 percent of teachers were absent. And in the elementary schools, about 34 percent of students and 40 percent of teachers were absent.

The figures include all school staff, not just teachers, and all student absences and early dismissals.

The question of whether to hold classes on Good Friday was first raised by former Superintendent James Marini in the fall of 2006, according to School Committee Chairwoman Sarah Swiger.

“At the time (of the decision), the School Committee went through a very lengthy review of religious observance days … and there was the chance for input,” said McAlduff.

Months of debate were dedicated to the issue, much of which revolved around Winchester’s changing demographics.

After intensive research by the Respect for Human Differences Committee, which was formed to delve into the issue and draft a policy, the school committee ultimately decided to hold class on the holiday.

Swiger and fellow committee member Kathleen Bodie voted against the idea, while Bob O’Connor, Michael Schindelman and former Vice Chairman Samuel Kounaves voted in favor of the move.

“To be respectful, you have to be respectful to everyone,” Kounaves said at the time of the debate. “A government body shouldn’t make decisions about religion.”

O’Connor agreed saying, “If next week, another religion comes and pleads for another holiday, what do we do then?”

Swiger said she voted to keep the day an observed holiday for safety reasons.

“I just wasn’t certain we’d have enough adults present to have an incident free day,” she said. “I do believe in the separation of church and state and I do believe in fairness but I’m just not sure we can do it this way.”

Ronald Martignetti, a Roman Catholic who has eight children, two of whom are currently high school student athletes, strongly opposes having classes on Good Friday.

“We should not have school on Good Friday for practical reasons,” he said. “You can’t hold school when better than 40 to 50 percent (of the students) are not going to attend.”

Martignetti was particularly disturbed by the high school’s policy on extracurricular activities.

On Holy Thursday, the Thursday before Easter commemorating the Last Supper, Martignetti was told his children would be ineligible to participate in sports if they didn’t attend class on Friday.

He subsequently contacted Principal Thomas Gwin.

According to Martignetti, when asked about the policy Gwin evaded the question but said other holidays are different from Good Friday.

“I didn’t think it was his position to make judgments on the issue,” said Martignetti, who subsequently drafted a letter to Gwin with the assistance of attorney Joseph Skerry.

The letter stated that if his children, or any others, were excluded from extracurricular activities due to being absent from school for Good Friday he would file a restraining order against the school system.

“The handbook allows for an exemption for religious preferences,” said Martignetti. “I would be equally upset if a Jewish child was made ineligible for extracurricular activities due to missing school for Rosh Hashanah or a Muslim child for missing Ramadan.”

Gwin eventually reversed his initial decision.

“Our usual policy is that when students aren’t in school they can’t participate in extracurricular activities or sports,” said Gwin. “But in this particular instance, we realized that our handbook rule couldn’t apply to a religious holiday.”

According to Gwin, school administrators didn’t take into account the religious aspect of the day when he originally tried to enforce the policy.

Given the high number of absent students and teachers, the School Committee will be reviewing its policy to determine if it’s feasible to continue holding school on the holiday.

There may be a critical mass of absences that could result in the decision being reversed, according to McAlduff.

Although the schools faced an extraordinarily large number of teacher absences, no substitutes had to be hired for the day because the schools have “in-school support staff” that covers any absences. Even if substitutes had been needed, the current spending freeze would have restricted spending, according to McAlduff.

Ironically, McAlduff faced a similar situation in his former school district of Wilmington, which had changed its Good Friday policy shortly before he became Superintendent there.

After two years, the Wilmington School Committee decided to reverse its decision, determining there were just too many absences, said McAlduff. The same thing may very well happen in Winchester.

Those students who did not go to school last week received an excused absence for the day, if the absence was called in according to protocol.

The teachers and staff of each school have varying contracts that stipulate religious observance days.

“Every effort was made to provide a good quality productive day for the kids who were there,” said McAlduff.